Yardwork: Here Come the Phillies

Yardwork: Here Come the Phillies

Yardwork: Here Come the Phillies

Phillies 7, Diamondbacks 1: The Phillies have ripped off seven straight wins and find themselves a very reasonable 3.5 games out of first (2.5 out of the wildcard). Doc threw a complete game for second time this month and rookie Domonic Brown – called up for the injured Victorino – went 2 for 3 with 2 RBIs in his major league debut. The City of Brotherly Love hasn’t been this excited about a Phillies rookie since Mickey Morandini’s historic arrival in 1990. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Ricky Jordan’s first major league at-bat was a home run. The rest of his at-bats were less inspiring than Bill Conlin’s diet.

Giants 10, Marlins 9 (10 innings): The Giants blew leads of 7-1 and 9-2 before Andres Torres ended it with a bases loaded single in the 10th. Buster Posey’s hitting streak is now at 21 games. Buster Olney’s bed head streak has reached 243 days.

Rays 7, Tigers 4: Prayers have been answered for Tiger fans in the form of a guy who can’t even spell Johnny, Mr. Jhonny Peralta. This has to be the most depressing baseball headline of the day.

Cardinals 8, Mets 7 (13 innings): Santana’s impressive line – 5.2 IP, 13 H, 7 ER. Six of those runs came in the first inning. Can’t get on him too much though, check out the rest of his July. Tony La Russa was impressed the Mets dug themselves out of the early hole – “They have a lot of grit. We have a lot of admiration for the Mets.” Calling bullshit here, he just wants free drinks at the hotel bar tonight.

Blue Jays 5, Orioles 0: Toronto starter Brad Mills, who had allowed 12 earned runs over 7.2 innings in two starts last year, held the O’s to two hits over seven innings. These things tend to happen when the Orioles are involved. The loss puts Baltimore 33.5 games out of first place. McNulty and Bunk badly need a shot of Jameson.

Padres 6, Dodgers 1: Clayton Richard allowed a run over six innings, but how are we supposed to discuss this game without veering off to Ryan Webb and his Yoda backpack? I’d call it creepy, but Yoda looks so happy that it’s actually a rather pleasant sight.